Ammunition



g- 4, 1942- G. M. CALHOUN AMMUNITION Filed March 18, 1939 'u %HU 4 GORDO/V M OAL//OU/V IN V EN TOR.

BY i 25&

A TTORNEYS.

Patented Aug. 4, 1942 AMMUNITION Gordon M. Calhon, Stratford, Conn., assigoto Remington Arms Company, Inc., a corporation of Delawa'e Application March 18, 1939, Serial No. 26.2,594

(CI. 102-26) v 6 Claims.

This invention relates to projectiles for small bore cartridges, and contemplates an economical and relatively harml-ess projectile for short range work so designed that upon impact its kinetic energy is dissipated in such a manner as to substantially obviate the danger of injury to adjacent objects. v

Ther are now in quite general use shooting galleries and devices of relatively short range, ordinarily intended for the use of conventional .22 caliber cartridges. range, that is the distance from the muzzle of the rifle to the' target, in some Shooting apparatus does not exceed six feet and the target to be hit is proportionately small. The energy of any of the ordinary .22 caliber cartridges, even those identified as CB" or "BB" caps, is unnecessarily great for these ranges, and such excess energy is undesirable since it must be dissipated in some way upon the impact of the bullet. solid lead bullets, and even such disintegrating lead bullets as described in the patent to Woodford, No. 2,168,381,` August 8, 1939, are undesirable at these extremely short ranges, since their impact inevitably results in a shower of metallic fragments. Some of these fragments are inevitably of appreciable size, and even the enclosing of the entire apparatus in a cabinet provided 'only With an opening of sufiicient size to permit manipulation of the gun has been found not wholly effective in the preventing of personal injuries.

In the drawing: v

Fig. 1 is a sectional view of a projectile and shell employing my invention.

Fig. 2 is a modification of the use of my invention.

The present invention contemplates a bullet or projectile which is preferably entirely nonmetallic, although metals in a fine state of division may be utilized. The bullet is of relatively light weight, but sufciently rugged to withstand the stresses incident to firing, and sufficiently accurate for ranges of several times the range of the type of apparatus above-mentioned. It has been found that excellent projectiles for this purpose may be made from an'admixture of a granular metallic o'xide or salt with a binder. Preferably the bnder is an admixture of a high melting microcrystalline petrolatum wax, such as "Socony 2300 and a high melting crystalline wax, such as "Shell Ceresin." In the fractional distillation of petroleum, various waxes are obtained.- Parafiin wax is the crystalline wax recovered from the light lubricating oil fractions and may be obtained in various manners. The

The actual Shooting' heavy oil lubricating fraction that lies above the parafiin wax fraction or light 'lubricating oil distillate contains wax of a different characteristic than that of the paraflin fraction, the structure of this latter wax being amorphous or microcrystalline. The wax in this higher viscosity distillate -is sometimes referred to as slop wax" and is not recoverable by the usual pressing or filtering method, .which 'may be used for paraflinwax. There are various methods used to recover this wax which are well-known in the art, such as the "cold settling" method, or by the use of a solvent such as naphtha, for example. The petroleum residue left in the still 'after the higher viscosity distilates have been driven off may also have the wax therein recovered by a' similar method such as the use' of naphtha followed by a centrifuge or separation process. There are many other methods and solvents that might be used for the purpose of recovering the amorphous or microcrystalline waxes, all of which are familiar to those skilled in the art. Microcrystalline waxes apparently come from the residue after the parafiin wax fraction has been removed. "Petrolatum wax," when used in this specification, means a wax other than the paraffin waxes which are derived from the heavier distillates and residues. This wax has a higher melting point than the paraffin waxes of commerce, being as high as F., and is a tough rubbery substanca varying in color, in dependence upon the amount of refining to which it has been subjected. Petrolatum wax is to be understood not to mean petroleum jelly. Shell Ceresin," supplied under that name by the Shell Union Oil Company, is a high melting crystalline, rather than microcrystalline, wax having amelting point ofabout 180 F.: Any hard crystalline wax having a melting point between 175 and F. will perform satisfactorily. Excellent results have also been Secured with a biider of the type commercially' known as "Parakote," this being a composition comprising a high percentage of rubber of a relatively low vulcanization admixed with a relatively small percentage of a, wax such as paraffin. The preferred filler material is litharge, although such other metallic oxides and salts as the oxides of iron and tungsten, iron 55 metallic oxide or salt wholly or in part.

A preferred composition comprses about 80% of litharge, about 18% of a mixture of equal parts of Socony 2300" and Shell Ceresin," and about 2% of lamp black, the latter being added to pro-' duce a desired dark color and to serve as a filler.

It has also been found that some material such as powdered talc may be dusted on the projectile to make the bullet cleaner to handle.

The bullet somposition is prepared by first melting the wax and stirring into the melted wax the desired quantity of a fiiler, such as litharge and the desired amount of coioring matter, such as lamp black. After cooling, the cakes of material thus prepared may be stored for use when needed; at which time they are preferably somewhat softened by heat and forced through an extruding die into a wire, the wire being subsequently cut into sections from which builets are swaged in the usual manner. In an alternative method of procedure, the cakes of the composition may be broken up, fragments softened by heat, if desired, and the softened material forced into bullet slug cavities of suitable size in a molding piate, there being a substantia number of such cavities in a single plate. Bullets are then swaged from the resulting sings. such bullets When loaded into Cartridge shells containing priming and powder charges comparable with those used for .22 short lead bullet cartridges are .reasonabiy accurate for ranges up to about 50 feet. Their accuracy at shorter ranges is increased by diminishing the powder charge; for extremely short range work, say ranges up to feet, the most satisfactory results are Secured with a very light propeliant charge and a short bullet. To minimize the danger of injury to the'relatively soft bullet, a cartridge shell of ordinary length, say .22 short, may be used, and a substantial fraction of the length In Fig. 1 is found an illustration of my invention in use in the conventional manner, 3 being the projecti-le and 4 the cartridge case. In Fle. 2 is found an example o! my invention wherein I have put the projectile 5 wthin the cartridge shell 4 to minimize the danger of-injury, 4 being the same as in Fig. 1.

It is to be understood that the invention extends to all equivalent compositions and procedures falling within a broad interpretation of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:`

1. A projectile for small arms ammunition comprising a filier of a metallic oxide, and a binder of a high melting petroleum base wax.

2. A projectile for small arms ammunition comprising a fiiler of a granular metallic oxide held in a binder which is an admixture of high melting petroleum base waxes.

3. A projectile for small arms ammunition containing substantially 80 parts of litharge, and substantially 18 parts of a binder which is an admixture of high melting petroleum base waxes.

4. A projectile for small arms ammunition containing substantially 80% of litharge, 2% of i lamp black, and 18% or a binder which is an of the bullet housed within the Cartridge case.

admixture of high melting petroleum base waxes. 5. A projectile for small arms ammunition composed chiefly of a heavy neiy *divided granular metallic compound held in a binder which V is an admixture of rubber and wax. I

6. A projectile for small arms ammunition comprising a fiiler of heavy granular metallic compound held in a binder which is anadmixture of a microcrystalline petrolatum wax having a melting .point of between and F., and a crystalline wax having a melting point of between about 175 and F.

GORDON M. CALHOUN. 

